Passion Is Teacher Of The Year Nominee's Secret

In a temporary building behind the main campus at James Madison Elementary, fourth grade teacher Heather DiMaggio tries to infuse 31 active 9-year-olds with the passion to learn.

"They're sweet and they're energetic and they just want to know about everything," DiMaggio said. "They're sponges. If you can hook them."

DiMaggio, a 14-year teaching veteran, will represent the San Leandro Unified School District in a county-wide competition tonight to name the Alameda County Teacher of the Year.

DiMaggio is vying with 19 other nominees representing their respective school districts for the county's top teaching award. 

But DiMaggio said she gets all the reward she needs when she sees the light of understanding in her students' eyes.

"What makes a good teacher is when you can bring the curriculum to life," she said.

One way to do that, she said, is by using art and other forms of sensory involvement to supplement books and lectures.

"Art is a great equalizer," DiMaggio said.

By fourth grade the learning gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children is already obvious. Students who may not be adept at writing can still draw and then explain verbally what the drawings represent.

"This gives me feedback about whether they got the point," DiMaggio said.

For instance, last year, in learning about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, DiMaggio had students draw mock suitcases containing things they would bring with them if they had to pack in a hurry.

The students then discussed their choices, giving them a sense of what it would be like to fit their whole life into a suitcase.

DiMaggio has pushed sensory involvement to the limits.

At one point she told students that Japanese-Americans were housed for a while in the horse stalls at the Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno.

"I got horse poop and brought it into the classroom," she said.

DiMaggio said advanced students can push art displays to the next degree.

Last year she helped a handful of advanced learners create a poster presentation about the Mendez family civil rights case.

In 1946, this Mexican-American family from Central California successfully challenged rules that sent them to a segregated school -- before the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case that outlawed segregation nationwide.

"They had to understand concepts like 'separate but equal,' which are pretty elevated for fourth graders," DiMaggio said.

Her nomination for Teacher of the Year included a written testimonial from Tiare Pena, whose daughter, Gabriella, had DiMaggio last year and took part in advanced projects.

"She has an unbelieveable amount of contagious energy that envelops you as soon as you enter her classroom," Pena wrote.

The awards ceremony will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the San Leandro High School Arts Education Center.

DiMaggio, who has one child in James Madison and another poised to start next year, said being nominated was award enough given the caliber of her colleagues throughout the county.

"There's so many amazing teachers out there," DiMaggio said. "I don't expect to win."